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Taiwan: Where the government is behind farmers all the way
It’s 7am in Chiayi, a city with about 260,000 inhabitants, some 250km south of the capital Taipei. The farmers market stretches along the narrow lanes of a whole city block and it is audible even before the first stand come into view: hundreds of mopeds and scooters produce a soundscape like a swarm of angry hornets. On their way to work the drivers stop at different market stalls to buy vegetables, fruit, meat, fish and seafood. The first farmers had arrived at 4am to set up, none have to travel further than about 30km. Some squat in front of a white sheet with a small selection of vegetables arranged in neat piles. As soon as everything is sold they will return home to do farm work. Other stalls offer a huge selection of fruit and vegetables. Until the city government stopped the practice for reasons of hygiene, farmers slaughtered pigs and even cows right next to their market stands, a fate that now awaits only the odd turtle. As in the People’s Republic of China, in Taiwan too, ‘wet markets’ have a long tradition. Drawing that comparison though leads into linguistic and political quicksand.
The nation that can’t speak its name
Farmers in Taiwan not only produce food, in a way they also grow national cohesion – which is extremely important for the nation’s security.
The key to understanding the multi-faceted role of agriculture in Taiwan is the country’s history. At the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 Mao Zedong proclaimed the ‘People’s Republic of China’. The Nationalists under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan, which they named ‘Republic of China’. In 1971 the UN withdrew its recognition of Taiwan as a nation state, and the People’s Republic of China took the ‘China’ seat in the UN Security Council. The People’s Republic considers Taiwan as a ‘wayward province’ that needs to return to the fold of the motherland. Worldwide only 12 states remain that recognise Taiwan as an independent nation. Since 1996 until the present, Taiwan has had free and fair elections. Successive democratic governments have tried their best not to provoke the rulers in Beijing, while furthering Taiwan’s democracy, economy and national identity. A recent sports event illustrates how elegantly the Taiwanese walk that tightrope. When the Taiwanese team won the World Baseball Softball championship, the team captain did a lap of honour in the stadium while pointing on the front of his shirt where other teams show their national flag. Within hours the gesture became a symbol for thepredominant sentiment among the 23 million Taiwanese: it’s their way to “fly their flag”.
Where eating is a political act
On a map Taiwan resembles a sweet potato with Taipei at the rounded top end. Along the eastern coast, mountain ranges rise to well over 10,000ft. On the west side of the island a third of the island is flat and densely populated. Cities seem to merge with towns and villages along that coastal strip, but from the window of one of the highspeed trains one can also see hundreds of tiny fields on which rice and vegetables are grown, orchards, greenhouses and, along the coast, aquaculture ponds. The average size of a farm is 1.1ha (2.7 acres). Only 3% are certified organic, but the government incentivises transition and encourages farmers to at least reduce the amount of agrochemicals applied. Why? For the production of chemical fertilisers Taiwan depends on imports from China, and a political crisis could have a negative impact on the nation’s food production – the less fertiliser Taiwanese farmers need, the better.
The Taiwanese government also wants its citizens to know where their food comes from. In a newly developed part of Zhubei, 80km southwest of Taipei, a traditional Chinese farmhouse sits in the centre of a small park. City planners decided to keep it to remind the residents of the surrounding apartment buildings that they live on what used to be agricultural land. The nearest wet market is in the city centre, but the city government has assisted a co-operative to set up and run a shop that sells fresh fruit and vegetables from local farmers. In the adjacent square organic producers set up their stalls for the Saturday market.
Respecting indigenous groups
Yong Shun Kao and Mei Hui Mei sell cabbages, spring onions, mushrooms and kakis. Both belong to an indigenous Taiwanese tribe and live in their ancestral village in the mountains, the farm is at an elevation of 5,100ft and can only be reached via a narrow road with numerous hairpin bends. Once a week they come to the market and deliver produce to an organic co-operative. A poster explains which varieties are seasonal and what’s available year-round. The family grows 14 different varieties of fruit and vegetable. In recent years they really have felt the consequences of the climate crisis, they say. There is too much rain, rain storms damage the fruits on the trees, and typhoons seem be more frequent. One such storm caused a landslide which blocked the access road, for six months the village was cut off, and essential supplies had to be flown in by helicopter.
Industry support, much appreciated
In the flat, fertile coastal region many farmers are members of a co-operative, some share the use of machinery, other organise the deliveries and marketing of produce. Shelley Su has a degree in design and is a third generation farmer, her great-grandparents were fishermen. She also heads an organic farmers’ co-operative with 22 members in Tainan province. Organic farming practices are really important to her. “I want to live in a clean environment”, she says. Su works closely with the city government of Tainan, which not only makes cheap loans available to organic famers but also facilitates contacts to customers: the co-operative delivers produce to restaurants, schools, and even the canteen of TSMC, the world’s leading producer of microchips. TSMC makes 90% of all complex semiconductors, and for Taiwan it’s become a kind of political life insurance: from smart phones to AI, nothing works without TSMC chips. Not just western companies, but the US and EU governments, too, have a vital interest in Taiwan remaining peaceful and democratic – necessary conditions for the continued supply of those semiconductors that the world cannot do without.
Like many companies, TSMC, too, maintains direct contacts to a number of farms – in a political crisis or the worst-case scenario of a Chines attack everyone’s survival depends on the ability of Taiwan’s farmers to produce enough food. Groups of TSMC employees are regular guests on the farms belonging to the organic farmers co-operative. They help with the harvest of vegetables and meet the farmers who deliver produce to their canteen.
As everywhere, the highest margins in food supply chains are realized through on farm value adding. For stressed customers Shelly Su produces ‘ready to eat’ vegetable products which can simply be added to rice or soups. She’s also designed all the packaging herself. “Made in Taiwan”, she says with a broad smile.
Photo copyright: @M.Kunz
Marianne Landzettel is a journalist writing and blogging about food, farming and agricultural policies in the UK, the US, continental Europe and South Asia. She worked for the BBC World Service and German Public Radio for close to 30 years. Follow her on X at @M_Landzettel and m.landzettel on Instagram
